I am for term limits. Several reasons (no particular order).
1. A person in a single office for a long length of time will tend to get "stale". After a length of time in one position, it should be considered natural to "move up".
2. Without term limits, people get "elected for life". The only ways a person would leave office is either death, voluntary stepping down, or extreme inefficiency.
3. Term limits force more people to get involved. Often the incumbent runs unopposed. One reason is the assumed re-election of the incumbent, which almost always happens.
4. Nothing in the rule prevents someone from getting term limited, then after an election cycle out-of-office, from trying to obtain the office again.
5. If one office is term limited, then ALL offices should be term limited. That is called consistency, and the reason behind the motion.
Note: if I had not made the motion, several others would have attempted, and there was even one attempt (ruled out of order) while Rule 38 was debated.
I am NOT an expert on Roberts Rules; therefore, except for obvious errors, I would not have noticed.
I agree that platform should have been voted on plank by plank (or at least in groups). I only had a chance to read throughly the areas I am most concerned with, so did not notice inconsistancies regarding free-trade and CFR. I do not recall if anyone rose to argue against the blanket approval/dis-approval of the platform on that basis.
My first convention too. I intend to return.
I served on the platform committee. The reason why it was not voted on plank by plank is that it didn't need to be. If the nay's had voiced their opinion in enough of a quantity, then each plank would have been voted on. Take it from me, we did the work on our committee for your benefit. We put in three 15 hour days plus two half days. We wordsmithed it enough that when we were finished we believed that we put together a lean but quite to the point document. The grassroots have spoken. Now that you have the time, read it from front to back and see if I am not right. Our platform is the most conservative of all the state platforms. There are a number of other states who request we send them our platform as soon as it is written for them to study as a guideline for their platform effort. That says a lot.
TX Liberty Lady spent time in the platform committee listening to the proceedings. I am sure she will tell you that we did the job we were called to do.